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Former Coast Guard cutter Storis headed to scrap yard

KODIAK — Attempts to save the Storis, once the longest-serving cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard, have failed and the ship will be stripped and sold for scrap metal.

The Storis will be towed Friday from California to Mexico, where is will be scrapped, KMXT reported (http://is.gd/3T6jjg ).

The ship was built in 1942 and served during World War II. After the war, the Storis patrolled Alaska waters, and called both Juneau and Kodiak home.

The Storis was decommissioned in 2007 and was auctioned by the General Service Administration last summer.

A nonprofit organization called Storis Museum attempted to save the ship from the scrapyard and turn it into a museum in either Juneau or where it was built, Toledo, Ohio.

“It’s a sad day for all of us who worked all over the United States, people were working to save the Storis. Unfortunately a lot of history and a great museum potential will be lost here,” said Joe Geldhof, a Juneau attorney and secretary for the group.

He said the organization doesn’t fault the businessmen who bought the ship but does say the General Service Administration “botched the disposal. They didn’t give nonprofits the opportunity to select the Storis before it was put on the scrap market.”

He said the organization will take its remaining funds to memorialize the ship and the crew members who served, likely with high-quality, museum grade models of the ship in Kodiak and possibly Juneau.

“We didn’t save the ship, but we’re working now to try to remember everybody who served on it and memorialize, to the extent we can, a wonderful ship that served the United States and the Coast Guard and the citizens of our country well,” Geldhof said.